NCAAs The Perfect Place To 'Click'

The Oregon cross country teams are headed to Wisconsin this week for the NCAA Championships, still wondering as fall's final race nears what their potential could be.

The second-ranked UO women are in the mix for their second national title in three years, and the men bring a No. 12 ranking into Saturday's races. Each finished top-five on the same course at Pre-Nationals, and has raised its profile since the championship portion of the schedule commenced.

The question for both the men and women remains, what could happen if the top five or six runners on each side all click on the same day? If that's the case for either one Saturday — or better yet, both — then look out.

"This is where we put our eggs in the basket; this is the meet we want to get to," UO head coach Robert Johnson said. "… We're gonna be ready and fired up to go there and have a chance to play for all the marbles."

Both Oregon distance programs weathered a coaching change this offseason. Then, an early schedule light on stiff competition made murky the Ducks' potential.

But after the top-five Pre-Nationals finishes, the UO women won the Pac-12 title, and the men were fourth. At NCAA West Regionals, the Women of Oregon again took first, and the men were fifth, qualifying for the final spot in the field this weekend.

Johnson said that when he and new women's distance coach Helen Lehman-Winters met prior to the season to gauge the Ducks' potential, "the numbers bore out to where we could be really solid. They looked good on paper. But you never know — are they going to jell together as group? What kind of synergy are they going to have as a unit?"

The UO women began to provide a hint at Pre-Nationals. Jessica Hull, the returning NCAA Outdoor track and field champion at 1,500 meters, won the six-kilometer race in Madison, Wis. She led five Ducks who finished in the top 22.

Isabelle Brauer rounded out the Ducks' top five that day. Two weeks later at Pac-12s, she was again Oregon's fifth runner, but this time in 12th place overall. And Phily Bowden and Amanda Gehrich gave the Ducks two more runners in the top 20, the sort of depth that could make Oregon a championship contender Saturday.

"If you talk to Helen, she'll tell you we haven't run to our max potential yet," Johnson said. "We're still waiting for that perfect race. We're still waiting for everybody to hit it."

If everyone can "hit it" on the same day, it would allow the UO women to challenge New Mexico, Colorado and Boise State for the national title. The same formula could help the Oregon men defy projections and break into the top 10.

The Men of Oregon have raced five times this season, and had four different runners lead them across the finish line. James West, Jackson Mestler, Cooper Teare and Blake Haney all have led the UO pack at various times this season — and now will look to stay together through the congestion of the crowded NCAA field Saturday.

"We're kind of a hodgepodge group," Johnson said. "What I'm trying to say is, looking at how many No. 1s we've had in the last two, three meets, there's a different guy every time. For us to have one guy finish No. 1 one time, another guy finish No. 1 another meet, what that shows us is that, if we can all be 'on' the same day, we'll be pretty talented."

For the men and women of Oregon, there's no time like Saturday to make that happen.